Keep Up With The DSM-V Actions and Discussions

Because nothing yet exists on Facebook, I’ve started a group related to the ongoing advocacy re: APA’s revision of the DSM-V entry for GID.  Feel free to drop by, like to any activities, articles or open letters that you’re involved with along this line, and discover more:  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14826561283&ref=mf

Update on Zucker, Blanchard and the Revision of the DSM

For those who are concerned about the establishment of an adherent to reparative therapy (Dr. Kenneth Zucker) and another seeking to entrench “autogynephilia” (a pathologization of treatment of non- “homosexual transgender” transfolk) in the DSM-V, there have been some new happenings.

One letter writer reports receiving an email from the APA which states that:

“The Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group, chaired by Kenneth J. Zucker, Ph.D., will have 13 members who will form three subcommittees:

    * Gender Identity Disorders, chaired by Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis, Ph.D.
    * Paraphilias, chaired by Ray Blanchard, Ph.D.
    * Sexual Dysfunctions, chaired by R. Taylor Segraves, M.D., Ph.D.”

uh-oh.

(crossposted in several places, and people are welcome to forward this on freely to others in the transgender and GLBT communities, as I see this as being very serious — Mercedes)

A short time ago, I’d discussed the movement to have “Gender Identity Disorder” (GID, a.k.a. “Gender Dysphoria”) removed from the DSM-IV or reclassified, and how we needed to work to ensure that any such change was an improvement on the existing model, rather than a scrapping or savaging of it.

Lynn Conway reports that on May 1st, 2008, the American Psychiatric Association named its work group members appointed to revise the Manual for Diagnosis of Mental Disorders in preparation for the DSM-V.  Such a revision would include the entry for GID. 

On the Task Force, named as Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Chair, we find Dr. Kenneth Zucker, from Toronto’s infamous Centre for Addictions and Mental Health (CAMH, formerly the Clarke Institute).  Dr. Zucker is infamous for utilizing reparative (i.e. “ex-gay”) therapy to “cure” gender-variant children.  Named to his work group, we find Zucker’s mentor, Dr. Ray Blanchard, Head of Clinical Sexology Services at CAMH and creator of the theory of autogynephilia, categorized as a paraphilia and defined as “a man’s paraphilic tendency to be sexually aroused by the thought or image of himself as a woman.”

Trans Panic Takes to New Heights

I suppose that it’s a testament to just how effective the trans panic defense is perceived to be at swaying public sympathy and potential jury favour that it can be levelled at people who are merely trans by association.

In 2006, Grace Soon set fire to the home of her estranged husband, former church minister Stephen Chin, killing him.  She is now facing charges of mansalughter, the case being heard by the Supreme Court in New South Wales, Australia.

Her defense is focusing on the humiliation and hurt she experienced as a result of Chin’s dalliances with transsexual prostitutes, during one of which (in 1999), he experienced a fall that left him a quadriplegic.  Another incident resulted in the infecting of Soon with venereal disease.  This history is being referred to as “exceptional and compelling” evidence of the emotional trauma that Soon was experiencing when she’d committed the act.

The couple had already been seperated for seven years by the time the arson occurred, and the trigger most likely was the fact that Soon felt her property was being threatened by Chin’s filing for divorce.  But wow, it’s the ”wholly extraordinary circumstances” of the case that has the defense claiming that the 20 months already served has been long enough and Soon deserves to be released.

Considering the planning that had taken place, carefully determining when Chin’s caregivers were off the premises, counting on his limited mobility, and the use of trans hysteria by association to attempt to weasel out of a manslaughter conviction of any significance, trans panic has hit a new high.

Or low, as the case may be.

Gives Good Headline: How the Media Loves its Sex Changes

Not too long ago, Calgary City Council voted whether to change the title of “alderman” to something ungendered, such as “alderperson” or “councillor.”  They voted the idea down, leaving them the last major Canadian city yet to do so.

In covering this, the Calgary Sun had a field day, printing the headline, “Council Nixes Sex Changes.”  Yep, anything to give good headline.

And of course, there’s so many people that you can’t pick on, anymore.  You can’t make a bogeyman out of someone because of their race or because they’re female or because they’re handicapped — you can’t even make them sound like their existence is a danger to society because of their sexual orientation, either… unless yours is a religious press. 

Transgender people are another matter entirely, and it is still socially acceptable to ridicule, insult, deride and speak epithets about anyone who doesn’t fit strict “male” and “female” gender stereotypes.  Even sitting to pee can be seen as a reason to lampoon a man.  And if you crossdress or are a transsexual, it’s open season.  Sometimes, I think we should get a medal for providing ample work for comedians and media people.

“First Same-Sex-Marriage, Then Polygamy Hell,” They Warned.

Periodically, I’ve seen the argument come up in the discussion of the fight for same-sex marriage rights in the U.S.  It usually goes like this: “if we allow gay people to marry and erode the definition of marriage, the next thing we know, we’ll have to recognize polygamy.”  Some of this is becoming more poignant as more and more people are being removed from Warren Jeffs’ compound, and the polygamist Mormon offshoots are garnering more press.

There’s a similar storm brewing in Bountiful, B.C. where up to 1500 residents are considered to be practicing polygamy.  But you know what?  Canada has same-sex marriage.  And strangely, nobody’s worried that this will empower the polygamists in the courts.  No, the RCMP are worried, instead, that they would lose such a criminal case in court because the charges could be seen as violating freedom of religion, where they have a much stronger case. 

Paging Fred Phelps: Could Be God on the Phone

If the Westboro Baptist Church family (Phelpses) considers Katrina, 9/11 and soldiers’ deaths in Iraq as God’s expression of anger at homosexuality, I wonder if they’ll consider this God’s just punishment for spreading hate?

Nah. I doubt it.

Destigmatization Versus Coverage and Access: The Medical Model of Transsexuality

In recent years, the GLB community has been more receptive to (and even energized in) assisting the transgender community, but regularly asks what its needs are. One that is often touted is the “complete depathologization of Trans identities” (quoting from a press release for an October 7, 2007 demonstration in Barcelona, Spain) by removing “Gender Identity Disorder” (GID) from medical classification. The reasoning generally flows in a logic chain stating that with homosexuality removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM, the “bible” of the medical community) in 1974, gay and lesbian rights were able to follow as a consequence – and with similar removal, we should be able to do the same. Living in an area where GRS (genital reassignment surgery) is covered under provincial Health Care, however, provides a unique perspective on this issue. And with Presidential candidates proposing models for national health care in the U.S., it would obviously be easier to establish GRS coverage for transsexuals at the ground floor, rather than fight for it later. So it is important to note, from this “other side of the coin,” how delisting GID could do far more harm than good.

With Friends Like These…

 In the newest issue of The Advocate, Neal Broverman examines the murder of Lawrence King in Oxnard California, and asks who is to blame for his death.  He writes:

In the months leading up to that morning, King had undergone a metamorphosis. Guided by a welcoming support system at the group home where he lived, the teenager was encouraged to dress as he pleased and live as the person he wanted to be. What King and others didn’t recognize was that this encouragement—and his response to it—placed him on a collision course with a culture that found him repulsive.

Broverman proceeds to point the finger at the foster care facility where he lived, his caregivers, and activists, including those who passed on a “Know Your Rights Guide” entitled “Queer and Trans Youth in California Foster Care Have Rights!” provided by the NCLR to LGBT youth at that and other care centres.  He continues:

As wonderful as this encouragement sounds, did it put Larry in harm’s way by sending him out in a world not ready for him? It may be beyond the capacity of kids to reconcile a tolerant atmosphere like Casa Pacifica with the xenophobic, conformist nature of school. Children like Brandon McInerney are products of their society, one that simply does not know what to do with a boy in heels.

Following classic blame-the-victim logic, Broverman quite clearly asserts that Lawrence King’s gender-defiant and openly gay behaviour is primarily responsible for his own death, as is anyone who had encouraged him to be himself.  Only in the last paragraph does he address the societal perspective fed to McInerney that violence somehow solves everything, in token regard.  I wonder if Broverman would apply the same logic to the murders of many others who we commemorate at the Transgender Day of Remembrance, or likewise feel that folks like Matthew Shepard should have simply lived more in secret than choosing to be themselves?  Perhaps we should be telling transsexuals to satisfy themselves with crossdressing in secret (assuming they can suffocate themselves like that without being driven to suicide) and not bother trying to change their lives into something they find tolerable, for the sake of the society “that simply does not know what to do with a boy in heels?”

One would think that an advocate who was really speaking for us with any form of concern and understanding might consider the possibility that the more we live in secret, the more those who would intimidate and harass us are emboldened and entrenched in the belief that their view (and hate) is “right.”  It’s puzzling that a magazine that advocates one community’s right to come out of the closet is suggesting that another community (trans youth) would be best served by staying in theirs.

Needless to say, more than a few people are upset.  TransYouth Family Allies have started a communal letter, introduced at The Bilerico Project, and already several have emailed them to join the signatories.

I have to wonder who Broverman considers himself an ”Advocate” for.

Hair!

Yay, rich, thick, luxurious hair!

Yeah, I know it’s not typical to want to declare out loud that “hey, I’m not wearing my own hair,” but I know there’s enough people who’ll want to know about this, so f— it.  For those like myself who were unfortunate enough to put off transition until middle age — at which point the forehead had grown very large and the hair damage had become permanent — sometimes it looks like the only option is to wear wigs for the rest of our lives (or else save up thousands of dollars for hair transplants).  But I’ve found (well, actually been pointed to, by a member of the local community) another option.  Right now, there’s only one company that makes this available, and I do risk giving a kind of sales ”plug,” but because I’m not being paid for this, I can give you all the unbiased skinny, including clear indications as to who should not use this method.